The Nats Report

A month ago, with the Washington Nationals hovering just below .500 and squarely in the thick of an extremely crowded NL Wild Card race, the thinking was that the Nats might hold on to all of their non-rental trade candidates and try to stay in the race while preparing to be a more serious contender next year, á la the 2022 Baltimore Orioles. Fast-forward a month, and not only did the Nats enter a bit of a tailspin - despite calling up top prospect James Wood - but they made an early trade over the weekend, sending top setup man Hunter Harvey (under team control through 2025, no less) to Kansas City for the Royals’ number two prospect and the 39th pick in the amateur draft, adding $2.395 million to their draft bonus pool.1

It was a master stroke by Mike Rizzo, and could mean that the Nats have the potential to really add to their stockpile over the next twelve days before the deadline. In lieu of these recent events, we will not only be adding Kyle Finnegan, Derek Law, and Lane Thomas back to this column, but we will also try to look a little closer at which teams might represent the best market for each trade candidate. Without further ado, let’s get into it. As always, we are working in order from most likely to be traded to least likely.

Jesse Winker

Pos: OF/DH | B/T: L/R | Best Fits: PHI, ATL, STL, PIT, LAD, MIN, KCR, SEA, HOU

Winker is still in the top ten in the National League in OBP, and there are a lot of contending teams that are struggling to get enough production from their outfield spots. Winker is only a rental and has pretty limited defensive value, so don’t expect the same caliber of return as the Nats got for Jeimer Candelario a year ago, but Winker might yet be the best lefty bat on the market this year.

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